Thierry's Lore Tidbits
Thierry Boulanger, the main director and writer of The Messenger, has provided small pieces of lore in the official Discord server. This is a compilation of important lore tidbits not explicitly mentioned within the game itself. October 19, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * Ruxxtin's gear belonged to a previous necromancer. October 19, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Emerald Golem and Howling Grotto both have deeper backstories. October 21, 2018 Conversation Takeaways *Blue Robes are retired Messengers, so Blue Robes members no longer carry the title of "Messenger." There is only ever one Messenger at a time. *Messengers did not always have greed demons on their side. At some point in time, greed demons betrayed demonkind and teamed up with the Blue Robes order. Before this event, Messengers used to just plain up die. *The Shopkeeper freaked out when he learned that Soldier died, because the Corrupted Future was an imminent threat and there weren't many remaining Blue Robes members. They were at a point in their timeless war where a very powerful demon was very close to entering the Tower of Time. *Over time, Messengers built frames around rifts to help future Messengers. October 23, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * All mushrooms with faces in Quillshroom Marsh were once living human beings. October 23, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * The Tower of Time is aware of all past, present, and future events. * The bodies lying on the floor of the Tower of Time are the actual dead bodies of Messengers who failed to make it through the Tower of Time challenge. * Due to the complex nature of time travel and alternate universes, the Messenger that breaks the Curse wouldn't necessarily have to be the final Messenger, and it could be reliant on a very important event happening to a later Messenger, hypothetically. * The Tower of Time HQ changes appearance to reflect the Messenger who's there. * Messengers from all different time periods visit the Tower of Time HQ at their leisure in no particular order from the shop's perspective. October 27, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * There is unused dialogue in the script (BARMATHAZEL_GAUNTLET_INTRO). You would return to the final room of the Underworld in 8-bit and have a conversation with Barma'thazël. In that conversation, Barma'thazël mentions that he can use scrying magic. That cut section of the game was originally involved in obtaining the Key of Chaos. * Demon magic is the root of the scroll's magic. October 29, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * Health jars are based off of old sake bottles. October 30, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * Both the flood and the demon attack of Forlorn Temple set humans back many generations in technology. October 30, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Messengers are possibly unable to time travel to a time period before the scroll's creation. October 30, 2018 (#3) Conversation Takeaways * The Mask is destroyed inside The Void, which is important. October 30, 2018 (#4) Conversation Takeaways * Guardian Gods and sky giants are completely different groups. * There really shouldn't be frames around the checkpoint rifts in Elemental Skylands or the Music Box. Ninja was originally meant to add the frames himself, but it didn't make it to the final version of the game. * The Tower of Time is trying to solve the "timeless battle," similar to a rubix cube. October 31, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * The Iron Hood was possibly a Messenger in a cycle before Ninja. October 31, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Each Messenger sees their own version of the Tower of Time HQ, so they don't really interact with each other. October 31, 2018 (#3) Conversation Takeaways * The Shopkeeper truly did experience the curse being defeated even though he's helping out Cowboy post-credits. November 9, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * Some of the demons are Kappa. November 9, 2018 (#2) Note: "Le Shopkeeper" is The Shopkeeper's Steam trading card name and official Twitter username. Conversation Takeaways * The English version of the script is canon. November 11, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * The English version of the script is canon. It's important and somehow linked to The Shopkeeper. November 16, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * Ninja is right-handed if he's facing to the right. * Ninja's draws his sword differently in 8-bit and 16-bit. His hand is always at the sword handle, which is at the top of the sheath in 8-bit and the bottom of the sheath in 16-bit. * Although The Shopkeeper has a super-deep voice in the video, "Shinobi No Kikan," this is not his canon voice. November 18, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * The English version of the script is very canon and related to The Shopkeeper. November 21, 2018 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * The Shopkeeper is not every member of the Blue Robes. November 21, 2018 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Reiterating that The Void is at the end of time, where all Messengers meet. The Tower of Time is also there. * Thierry at the time was questioned about the appearance of a new Discord channel, called #the-void. Thierry acted as if he was not aware of the new channel. November 21, 2018 (#3) Conversation Takeaways * The Corrupted Future can still exist even though it was prevented by Ninja since it's a branch. * There is a way to make a happy ending for everyone. * SaboTeam can only access a small portion of the archives. November 21, 2018 (#4) Conversation Takeaways * SaboTeam doesn't know anything about #the-void channel shenanigans. December 8, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist recruited SaboTeam to tell people specific stories. * The Archivist works mysteriously. December 11, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist is mysterious. December 13, 2018 Conversation Takeaways * Ninja is 2 tiles tall. January 8, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The community chose to summon Rainbowdragoneyes instead of learning an important hint related to The Shopkeeper's identity. January 8-9, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist is not trying to trick the community. January 16, 2019 Conversation Takeaways *It's not clear if Monk was the most skilled Messenger (the one who obtained the Key of Adventure and Key of Revenge), but she was definitely the strongest Messenger. *Humans couldn't use magic until the scroll came along. *You shouldn't see Time Shards unless you carry the scroll or are in The Void. There's a glitch in the intro of the game with Ninja Village where the two Ranged Kappa can drop Time Shards before you get the scroll, but this shouldn't be a thing. *Carrying the scroll makes you aware and responsive to time magic because Phantom distilled a branch of demon magic into the scroll and made it much more potent. *All demons have some magic, but nothing specialized in time magic. Demons can't see Time Shards or time rifts. They need the scroll in order to be able to use time magic and in order to enter The Void. *Demons want the scroll and want to invade The Void. *The timeline perspective from the Tower of Time is different from Ninja's perspective of his own timeline. It's totally possible that The Shopkeeper met Ninja at Glacial Peak before ever meeting Ninja in the shop in the Catacombs. *Something major happened to the Blue Robes which almost eradicated the order and forced them to escape The Void until the next Messenger could summon the Tower. (Hypothetically.) January 19, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The flood turned Searing Crags from an active volcano into a dormant volcano. January 24, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Even though Thierry wrote both the English and Québécois scripts, the English version of the script is canon. January 25, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * Barma'thazël vanishes before he's killed in the Underworld. * Ninja's agility, Monk's strength, and Barma'thazël's speed respectively lead to Cloudstepping, a spoiler-related ability, and phase-shifting. * Barma'thazël is really fast. January 26, 2019 Conversation Takeaways * The Messenger is just one book in an overall larger universe that The Archivist wants SaboTeam to tell people. * The Archivist wants to recruit enough Messengers to solve the big issue. * "Barma'thazël's Revenge", which starts off with "Picnic Panic," is a trilogy of self-contained sidequests that occur after Ninja's mandatory story. The other two sidequests after Picnic Panic may or may not be told. It's optional stuff that definitely adds to the world-building, but it's not necessary for the larger picture. February 5, 2019 (#1) Conversation Takeaways * The Archivist is Thierry's boss. Thierry is only allowed to reveal information that The Archivist wants him to, otherwise The Archivist gets angry. * The Iron Hood is not The Artificer. * There is something special about the Tower of Time statues. * The Archivist wants to recruit enough Messengers to solve the big issue, so he's slowing ramping up a group of people. February 5, 2019 (#2) Conversation Takeaways * Picnic Panic won't be lore-intensive, but it will still be a fun little self-contained side adventure with Ninja shenanigans. February 7, 2019 (The Archivist) Note: This isn't a Thierry Lore Tidbit, but The Archivist hopped out of #the-void channel to add an important react emote to a message in a different channel. Conversation Takeaways * Although The Archivist wanted players to observe Ninja's story first, there is another character in The Messenger that has important value and should be focused on. * As The Archivist has never stepped out of #the-void channel other than for this single instance, this react means that it's an extremely important statement. February 7, 2019 Conversation Takeaways *There is only 1 scroll. *Time portals don't show up until after you defeat Barma'thazël because The Shopkeeper did something to the scroll to make Ninja more attuned to it. *There is 1 Void and many alternate timelines. *Paradoxes don't cause a space-time collapse but can mess with the paradox beholder's mind. For example, becoming your own shopkeeper. That why the Order of the Blue Robes where blue robes. *The Shopkeeper is not Ninja. *The Tower of Time is like a time machine. Ninja enters the Tower of Time at every checkpoint. *The Tower of Time appears briefly to grab Ninja and fly him to where (when) he is needed. *The Tower of Time goes to the scroll. *The Void materialized as a way to balance the existence of all these alternate timelines. It acts like an anti-infinity so that the balance is kept. *If something comes from The Void or enters The Void, it becomes canon across all timelines. It becomes a single instance of itself. *The Corrupted Future was almost named the "Corrupted Void." It is the only area in the game without 8-bit/16-bit transitions because it's stuck in 8-bit and the 16-bit version is what Ninja has to prevent. *Every time there is a fork in time, both happen and become their own timeline. Carrying the scroll lets you create your own linear timeline. *Just as Ninja visited the Corrupted Future to have scope on why he had to win, The Archivist shows the player Ninja's world, to give the player scope on the future The Archivist wants to be prevented. Category:Lore